EDUC90929 Education Policy in Context
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026EDUC90929 Overview
- The University of Melbourne
- S2 2026
- 13 chapters
- Education
EDUC90929 studies education policy as a contested field of values, purposes, actors and consequences. Across eight non-consecutive seminar weeks, the subject connects policy concepts with justice, social reproduction, Indigenous Peoples and education policy, discourse, inclusion, globalisation, comparative assessment, data and AI.
- Assessed by Written report — critical review of key readings 40% · Essay on an education policy issue 60% + 1 more — Attendance / engagement is a hurdle
- Key terms Education policy, Meritocracy, Habitus, Capability
- Assessment move Use the eight seminar weeks as thematic anchors rather than treating them as a consecutive calendar.
- Most asked How many readings are used in Assessment task 1?
What you get in the full EDUC90929 Study & Assessment Guide
- 13 chapters, 152 pages — every assessed topic, week by week
- 61 original practice questions, each with a model answer
- 13 worked examples, solved the way EDUC90929 marks
- 26 computed figures, redrawn from the course’s own numbers
- Before-you-submit checklist for the Essay on an education policy issue (60%) — what markers reward, what costs marks
Free on this page: assessment table, chapter map, one worked example, key terms, FAQ. The rest is in the full study & assessment guide.
How EDUC90929 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Written report — critical review of key readings | 40% | 2,000 words · due Wed 2 Sep 2026, 5:00 pm (Melbourne) · task-level hurdle not stated — confirm on Canvas |
| Essay on an education policy issue | 60% | 3,000 words · due Wed 4 Nov 2026, 5:00 pm (Melbourne) · task-level hurdle not stated — confirm on Canvas |
| Attendance / engagement · hurdle | hurdle | at least 75% — three official statements; two specify seminars; six of eight means no more than two missed seminars |
What other students are asking about EDUC90929
- Where can I find lecture notes or study guides for EDUC90929 at UniMelb?
- The EDUC90929 study guide in AskSia Library covers Education Policy in Context in 13 chapters, with the assessment table, a chapter-by-chapter topic map, key terms and a worked example, free to read on this page.
- Is there a final exam in EDUC90929?
- No final exam is listed in the offering this AskSia Library guide is built from; EDUC90929 is assessed by Written report — critical review of key readings 40%, Essay on an education policy issue 60%, Attendance / engagement hurdle.
- What does EDUC90929 cover on what counts as education policy?
- In AskSia Library's EDUC90929 guide, the What Counts as Education Policy chapter explains policy as values and action, policy levels, actors and Cairney's account of the policy process.
- What does EDUC90929 cover on purpose of education and theories of justice?
- In AskSia Library's EDUC90929 guide, the Purpose of Education and Theories of Justice chapter explains educational purposes, SDG 4, the Mparntwe Declaration, Rawls, Sen and competing meanings of fairness.
- What does EDUC90929 cover on bourdieu: capital, habitus, field and doxa?
- In AskSia Library's EDUC90929 guide, the Bourdieu: Capital, Habitus, Field and Doxa chapter explains economic, cultural and social capital, habitus, field, doxa and mechanisms of social reproduction.
What EDUC90929 covers
The subject moves from definitions of policy and educational purpose through justice, social reproduction, identity and inclusion to globalisation, data and AI. The final toolkit turns those ideas into critical-review and policy-essay workflows.
Assessment Map and the Attendance Hurdle
Two written tasks, exact deadlines, three attendance statements, six-of-eight arithmetic, integrity requirements and Canvas checksEDUC90929 has two weighted tasks. Assessment task 1 is a 2,000-word written report providing a critical review of key readings—five readings, selected by you; it is worth 40% and is due Wednesday 2 September 2026 at 5:00 pm Melbourne time.
- The two weighted tasks and exact 2026 deadlines
- The fixed Task 1 question and its five-reading requirement
- Three official attendance statements and the six-of-eight consequence
- Eight seminars identified by non-consecutive week-beginning dates
- AI declaration, integrity checks and source boundaries
What Counts as Education Policy
Policy as values and action, policy levels, actors and Cairney's account of the policy processEducation policy is more than a published document. The Week 1 materials connect formal principles, objectives and guidelines to action, enactment and tangible effects.
- Policy as principles, objectives, action and effects
- Levels, actors, instruments and allocations
- Lingard's authoritative allocation of values
- Cairney's process factors and non-linear choice
- Global circulation and local enactment
Purpose of Education and Theories of Justice
Educational purposes, SDG 4, the Mparntwe Declaration, Rawls, Sen and competing meanings of fairnessThe purpose of education is itself a policy question. A policy can frame education as preparation for work and productivity, an intrinsic good, the development of personhood, or preparation for civic and democratic life.
- Instrumental, intrinsic and civic purposes of education
- SDG 4 and the Mparntwe Declaration
- Competing theories and standards of justice
- Rawls's justice-as-fairness thought experiment
- Sen's capabilities, conversion factors and substantive freedom
Bourdieu: Capital, Habitus, Field and Doxa
Economic, cultural and social capital, habitus, field, doxa and mechanisms of social reproductionBourdieu's framework helps explain how formally neutral educational arrangements can reproduce social advantage. Economic, cultural and social capital are resources whose value depends on recognition within a field.
- Economic, cultural and social capital
- Cultural capital as valued tastes, behaviours and knowledge
- Habitus as durable but not mechanically determining dispositions
- Field, stakes, positions and recognised resources
- Doxa, naturalised rules and social reproduction
Merit, Meritocracy and Parentocracy
Merit as allocation and moral story, Young, Mijs, Sandel, comparative models and parentocracyThe subject treats meritocracy as both an allocation rule and a moral story about deservingness. Talent, effort and achievement appear to justify rewards, yet the definition and development of merit are shaped by institutions and unequal opportunity.
- Merit as performance, allocation and moral narrative
- Young's dystopian origin of meritocracy
- Mijs on institutions and unequal opportunities to develop merit
- Sandel on deservingness, winners and dignity
- Parentocracy, family resources and metric-based competition
Privilege and the Capabilities Approach
Privilege, resources, conversion factors, real alternatives, agency and adaptive preferencesPrivilege is analytically useful when it identifies an unearned or structurally supported advantage rather than merely assigning a personal label. The subject's treatment asks how benefits become normal, invisible or easier to convert within institutions.
- Privilege as structural advantage and institutional normality
- Resources, conversion factors, real alternatives and agency
- Personal, material and social conversion factors
- Agency, choice and adaptive preferences
- Policy design for substantive rather than merely formal opportunity
Indigenous Peoples and Education Policy
Colonisation, racism, UNDRIP, critical race theory, education sovereignty and policy responsibilityThis chapter concerns colonisation, racism, the Stolen Generations, the Frontier Wars, the Uluru Statement, the Voice, UNDRIP, critical race theory and education sovereignty.
- Colonisation and the continuing policy context
- Racism, critical race theory and institutional structures
- The Stolen Generations, Frontier Wars and policy memory
- UNDRIP, self-determination and education sovereignty
- The Uluru Statement, the Voice and respectful policy analysis
Deficit versus Strengths-Based Discourse
How policy language locates problems, describes situations rather than people and supports strengths-based analysisDeficit discourse locates a policy problem in alleged shortcomings of people, families or communities.
- Deficit discourse and problem location
- Strengths-based language and community resources
- Describing situations rather than defining people
- Agency, voice, evidence and institutional responsibility
- Auditing policy effects produced by language
Inclusive Education and Models of Disability
CRPD, exclusion to inclusion, medical and social models, barriers, participation and system reformThe Week 4 materials emphasise that inclusive education has no single universally agreed definition and is shaped by time, place, culture and political economy.
- Contested definitions of inclusive education
- CRPD and the right to inclusive education
- Exclusion, segregation, integration and inclusion
- Medical and social models of disability
- Access, attendance, achievement, progression and participation
Gendered Discourses in Education
Gender, sexuality and sex, Foucauldian discourse, subject positions, power and policy possibilitiesWeek 5 concerns gender and sexuality, and its learning outcomes require students to distinguish gender, sexuality and sex. The lecture names Michel Foucault (1971), reached through Bronwyn Davies (2000), for its discourse account.
- Distinguishing gender, sexuality and sex
- Foucauldian discourse, knowledge and power
- Subject positions and the production of normality
- Policy categories, silences and material effects
- A source-bounded signpost to the assigned Davies reading
Globalisation and PISA in Education Policy
Global and local policy relations, IEA and OECD studies, PISA influence, inference limits and a bounded WPR signpostThe Week 6 materials describe globalisation as widening and intensifying cross-border relations while resisting the idea of one inevitable process.
- Multiple globalisations and national mediation
- Policy convergence, emulation, path dependence and local enactment
- Global state and non-state education-policy actors
- IEA studies compared with OECD PISA
- PISA influence, cautious inference and a bounded WPR signpost
Datafication and AI in Education Policy
Five education data cases, O'Neil's audit questions, surveillance, generative AI literacy and governanceDatafication turns more educational activity, people and institutions into data that can be compared, predicted and governed.
- Datafication, metrics, models and policy decisions
- Five education data-ethics cases
- O'Neil's algorithmic-audit questions and feedback loops
- Surveillance capitalism, ownership, consent and agency
- Generative-AI hallucination, bias, privacy, verification and declaration
Critical Review and Policy Essay Toolkit
Question unpacking, theory-to-evidence reasoning, synthesis, structure, APA 7 and the AI declarationAssessment task 1 is a critical review built from five self-selected readings. Its official question is: To what extent does a meritocratic education system produce fair outcomes?
- Content, limiting and directive terms in an assessment question
- Context selection without rewriting the official question
- Five-reading synthesis for the critical review
- Theory-to-mechanism-to-evidence paragraph design
- Structure, APA 7, source checking and the AI declaration
The central skill is not recalling a list of policies. It is explaining how a problem is framed, which actors and knowledge gain authority, which institutional mechanism produces an effect, and what a theory reveals or leaves unresolved.
The two weighted assessments total 100%.
Assessment task 1 is a 2,000-word critical review of key readings—five readings, selected by you—worth 40% and due Wednesday 2 September 2026 at 5:00 pm Melbourne time. Assessment task 2 is a 3,000-word policy essay worth 60% and due Wednesday 4 November 2026 at 5:00 pm Melbourne time.
Both require an argument grounded in scholarly literature, a bounded education-system context and theory used to frame the question and evidence. The readable files do not expose the complete guides or rubrics, so current Canvas materials remain authoritative for criteria and submission rules.
A separate subject-level attendance or engagement hurdle applies.
There are three official statements: the syllabus refers to 75% attendance at or engagement with identified contact hours, while the dedicated hurdle page and illness protocol scope the requirement to seminars. The protocol supplies the actionable consequence: across eight seminar weeks, six attended seminars is 75%, so you may miss two, not three. Partial seminar attendance can lower the recorded count.
If illness affects attendance, notify the tutor or coordinator, request permission for a same-week class swap, and use special consideration as the fallback when too ill and the hurdle is at risk.
The guide follows a concept-to-evidence method.
Bourdieu helps analyse capital, habitus, field and naturalised institutional rules; the capabilities approach tests how resources become real alternatives through conversion factors; critical race and sovereignty lenses ask whose knowledge and authority govern education; discourse theory examines available subject positions; and the globalisation, data and AI chapters audit comparison, metrics, error and human agency.
Worked paragraphs and the 14-item application bank are original practice, not official questions or marking schemes.
Worked example · free
Illustrative policy-analysis drill
- 2Define the policy mechanism, the selected context and the meaning of fair outcomes.
- 3Use a theory concept to explain how unequal resources may be converted into recognised merit.
- 2Identify evidence that could support, complicate or challenge the proposed mechanism.
- 3Reach a proportional judgement and state the limits of the claim.
Key terms
- Education policy
- A field of authoritative ideas, decisions, actions and practices through which educational values and purposes are pursued and contested.
- Meritocracy
- An allocation principle and social narrative that links rewards to recognised talent, effort or achievement.
- Habitus
- Durable dispositions shaped through social experience that orient perception and action within fields.
- Capability
- A person's substantive freedom or real opportunity to achieve ways of being and doing they have reason to value.
- Discourse
- A system of meaning that shapes what can be said, known and treated as a legitimate policy problem or subject position.
- Datafication
- The process of turning educational activity, people and institutions into data that can be compared, predicted or governed.
EDUC90929 FAQ
What are the two weighted assessments?
Assessment task 1 is a 2,000-word written report providing a critical review of key readings, worth 40% and due Wednesday 2 September 2026 at 5:00 pm Melbourne time. Assessment task 2 is a 3,000-word essay on an education policy issue, worth 60% and due Wednesday 4 November 2026 at 5:00 pm Melbourne time. A task-level hurdle is not stated for either in the available materials; confirm on Canvas.
What is the attendance requirement?
There are three statements. The Subject Overview requires at least 75% attendance at, or engagement with, identified contact hours. The dedicated hurdle page says students must attend at least 75% of seminars, cannot pass below the threshold and lose attendance for partial attendance. The illness protocol also says 75% applies to seminars and that missing more than two means the hurdle cannot be met.
With eight seminar weeks, six attended seminars is 75%, so you may miss two, not three. Plan against the seminar-specific wording and confirm any current change on Canvas.
How many readings are used in Assessment task 1?
The task is built on five self-selected readings. Keep the official question unchanged and explain the chosen education-system context in the response rather than rewriting the question.
Are the detailed rubrics and penalty rates included here?
No. The rubrics and penalty policy are link-only in the subject materials available here, and the readable Task 1 guide is absent. This guide does not invent criteria, bands or rates; check the current Canvas materials.
What Task 2 questions are available in these materials?
Only Question 4, about how international measures such as PISA influence education policy, is visible in the subject materials available here. Questions 1–3 are not reconstructed here; use the current Assessment Guide in Canvas.
What should I do if illness affects seminar attendance?
Follow the illness protocol in order. First notify your tutor or subject coordinator. Next request permission to attend a different seminar in the same week; a class swap is not automatic. If you are too ill to attend and the hurdle is at risk, use special consideration as the fallback. Keep the written response and your own attendance record.
Do not assume that asynchronous engagement substitutes for a missed seminar when both the dedicated hurdle page and illness protocol speak specifically about seminars.
How should I use theory in the assessments?
Select the concept that explains the mechanism in your question rather than displaying an entire theoretical tradition. Define it, justify why it is useful, use it to decide what evidence matters, return to it in the analysis and state what it does not explain. For example, capital and field can explain institutional recognition, while conversion factors can test whether a formal resource creates a real alternative.
Theory organises the inference; policy documents, scholarly research and context evidence establish what occurred.
Questions students ask in each EDUC90929 chapter
- Do the two written tasks total 100%?
- Yes. The critical review is worth 40% and the policy essay is worth 60%. The integrity and AI-declaration quizzes shown in Canvas are not extra weighted components in the official assessment table. Chapter 01 · Assessment Map and the Attendance Hurdle
- Is a policy only a government document?
- No. The subject materials include policy at multiple government and organisational levels and emphasise actions, processes and effects as well as formal statements. Chapter 02 · What Counts as Education Policy
- Are instrumental and intrinsic purposes mutually exclusive?
- Not necessarily. A policy may combine preparation for work with personhood, civic participation and learning as an intrinsic good, but analysis should expose tensions and trade-offs. Chapter 03 · Purpose of Education and Theories of Justice
- Is cultural capital the same as intelligence?
- No. Cultural capital concerns socially recognised tastes, behaviours and knowledge; its value depends on the field and its standards of recognition. Chapter 04 · Bourdieu: Capital, Habitus, Field and Doxa
- Did Michael Young introduce meritocracy as praise?
- No. The Week 1 materials emphasise that the term was introduced in a dystopian work, making its critical origin important to analysis. Chapter 05 · Merit, Meritocracy and Parentocracy
- Is privilege only about individual intention?
- No. The analytic emphasis is on structurally supported advantage, institutional rules and the ease with which resources can be converted, whether or not an individual intends harm. Chapter 06 · Privilege and the Capabilities Approach
- Why does terminology require special care?
- Terms carry histories and political meanings. This guide follows Hogarth and Rudolph's Melbourne Graduate School of Education (MGSE) terminology resource, capitalises proper collective terms, writes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in full, rejects “ATSI”, uses Dreaming rather than Dreamtime and avoids the resource's enumerated slur list. Chapter 07 · Indigenous Peoples and Education Policy
- Is strengths-based language just positive wording?
- No. It changes the location of the problem, recognises resources and agency, and should alter evidence, participation and policy response. Chapter 08 · Deficit versus Strengths-Based Discourse
- Is mainstream placement sufficient for inclusion?
- No. Placement can coexist with exclusion from learning, relationships, decision-making or progression. Participation and system change must be examined. Chapter 09 · Inclusive Education and Models of Disability
- Are gender, sexuality and sex interchangeable?
- No. Week 5 expressly requires students to distinguish them and analyse the relationships without collapsing one into another. Chapter 10 · Gendered Discourses in Education
- Are all international large-scale assessments run by the OECD?
- No. The subject compares IEA studies such as TIMSS and PIRLS with the OECD's PISA, noting differences in philosophy, cohorts and governance. Chapter 11 · Globalisation and PISA in Education Policy
- Is a highly accurate model automatically ethical?
- No. The definition of success, distribution and cost of errors, data rights, feedback effects and available human review also matter. Chapter 12 · Datafication and AI in Education Policy
- Can the Task 1 question be rewritten to name my context?
- No. Keep the official question unchanged and explain the chosen education system and narrower focus in the response. Chapter 13 · Critical Review and Policy Essay Toolkit
How to prepare for the assessments
Use the eight seminar weeks as thematic anchors rather than treating them as a consecutive calendar. Before each seminar, read the required texts, watch the assigned material and record the author's problem, context, claim, evidence, theory and qualification. After the seminar, write one policy problem, one mechanism, one counter-reading and one evidence need.
Maintain two live matrices: a theory ledger linking concept to mechanism and limitation, and a source ledger linking each reading to a sentence in your planned answer. Build Assessment task 1 by synthesising five readings around the unchanged meritocracy question rather than writing one section per author. Build Assessment task 2 by preserving the selected question's content, limiting, directive, evidence and context terms.
Draft thesis and topic sentences early, then test whether every paragraph changes or supports the answer. Before submission, verify the current guide, rubric, penalty policy, AI declaration, APA 7 details and attendance requirement on Canvas; review the similarity report in detail rather than aiming at a magic percentage.
Your AI Education tutor for EDUC90929
Stuck on a hard EDUC90929 question? Sia is AskSia’s AI Education tutor — ask any EDUC90929 Education Policy in Context question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how the course is actually taught and assessed. Read this whole study guide free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.